Minivans and sport utility vehicles are becoming increasingly popular and typically provide a flexible seating system capable of accommodating various seating and storage configurations. Such seating systems provide users with the ability to vary a location of a seat within a vehicle and/or to otherwise adjust the seat between a recline position, a fold-flat position, a dumped position, and/or a kneeled position.
Conventional seating systems typically include at least one latch mechanism that cooperates with a striker to prevent movement of the vehicle seat relative to the vehicle. In one application, the latch mechanism may be used to selectively prevent rotation of a seatback relative to a seat bottom. In another application, the latch mechanism may be used to prevent movement of the vehicle seat relative to a floor pan of the vehicle (i.e., rotation and/or removal). In either application, the latch mechanism prevents movement of the vehicle seat relative to the vehicle when engaged with the striker and permits movement of the vehicle seat relative to the vehicle when disengaged from the striker.
While conventional latch mechanisms adequately secure a seat assembly to a vehicle structure, such conventional latch mechanisms do not adequately compensate for small variations between the striker and latch mechanism components. Such variations may allow the seatback to move a miniscule amount even when the mechanism is locked and may cause undesirable noise and vibration.
For example, the seatback of an unoccupied seat assembly may tend to vibrate when the vehicle encounters rough road conditions, creating undesirable noise and rattling. This magnified play in a latch mechanism has been termed “chucking” and refers to any manufacturing variation or play in the mechanism components or between the mechanism components and a striker that allows movement of the seatback while the mechanism is in a latched condition. These small movements become noticeable at the upper end of the seatback and can cause discomfort to an occupant.